[Few aspects with regard to diagnosis and treatment of oral candidiasis]

The present article discusses the rationale for daily use of the combination of amphotericin B (4 lozenges) intraorally and chlorhexidine denture disinfection (15 min) extraorally vs separate use of polyene antimycotics or chlorhexidine in the treatment of infectious denture stomatitis, frequently considered as the most common form of oral candidiasis. The amphotericin B/chlorhexidine combination has been standard treatment of infectious denture stomatitis in Scandinavia for more than 15 years. It was found to be the best among several regimens tested in 100 patients after a series of subjective and objective parameters had been used to record treatment efficacy in controlled clinical and microbiological studies. The fact that there was a significant (5% level) higher reduction of yeasts cultured from the palatal mucosa with this drug regimen than with the other modalities tested, including chlorhexidine lozenges/chlorhexidine denture disinfection, suggested that no drug interaction of clinical importance took place in vivo with this combination. Therefore, care should be taken when extrapolating findings on drug interaction in vitro (12) to the in vivo situation, and guidelines for treatment of oral candidiasis should preferably be based on controlled clinical and microbiological trials with patients. In order to prevent relapse of oral candidiasis after treatment, local and general predisposing factors should be eliminated, in particular reestablishment of plaque on the fitting side of the denture should be prevented.